Analyzing The Conspiracy Theories Of D. B. Cooper

D.B. Cooper is a name famous in and out of conspiracy theories and TV specials. He did the impossible and disappeared without a trace. The only successful plane hijacking in American history was performed by D.B. Cooper. This seemingly impossible feat required an intricate plan executed to perfection, which was successfully done as nobody has seen or heard from D.B. Cooper since his hijacking. In order to have successfully hijacked the plane, D.B. Cooper had to board the plane, take over the plane, collect what he demanded, and disappear without a trace. A feat like this has undoubtedly fueled conspiracy theories and federal investigations, but to this day nobody knows what happened to D.B. Cooper. The day D.B. Cooper carried out the hijacking was November 24, 1971. He purchased a ticket for Northwest Airlines Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle (Fink 178). The flight from Portland to Seattle was a short flight, estimated to last about thirty minutes. Airport security in 1971 was much less stringent than airport security is today, which allowed D.B. Cooper to carry a bomb with him in his briefcase onto the flight. He was dressed in business attire which deflected any

Cooper there have been several conspiracy theories created about what happened to him, who he was, and how he got away with the hijacking. Many people speculate that D.B. Cooper survived the hijacking and is still alive to this day. There is credible evidence to support this theory, as no corpse was ever found fitting his description and decades of government investigations have shown no definitive leads. The FBI didn’t stop investigating the D.B. Cooper hijacking until 2016, which was forty-five years after the hijacking occurred (Cooney). Conspiracy theorists assume that if there was any evidence of D.B. Cooper not surviving the hijacking, the FBI would’ve uncovered that after forty-five years of intensive